Correct, but who is not very closely tied to the West financially? The entire international financial system is a Western creation to begin with and the dollar still reigns supreme. China cannot decouple itself from the West economically either. The rise of China would have been impossible if decoupled from the international system. China's emergence was due to becoming the manufacturing hub of the world.
The US is also the by far largest trade partner of China.
Also let us be honest an organization where China and India is a part of, is doomed to failure. Also South Africa (LOL) as one of the 5 main pillars. Come on. I think that countries should be cooperating directly with nations outside of those coffee clubs. Even the UN where everyone is a part of is mostly a failure and a very ineffective system but one could argue that there are no other alternative.
BTW, I am not against KSA becoming a BRICS member but I cannot see what we would gain that we cannot gain directly by cooperating with China, India, Russia, Brazil and all those countries that we already deal with directly.
Anyway we are a off-topic here, lol.
